News Release

World's conservationists shift focus from land to sea

Time：2016-09-14Browse Number：511Source：The Christian Science Monitor

(Sep. 13) In a Honolulu exhibition hall,
International Union for the Conversation of Nature (IUCN) members issued a
lofty challenge to world leaders: set aside one-third of all oceans as marine
reserves.

The World Conservation Congress, which met
last week at the Hawaii Convention Center, approved the hotly contested Motion
53, which calls for expanding protections to 30 percent of Earth's oceans.

A portion of Midway Atoll in the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National
Monument, which was

expanded by the Obama administration in August 2016. Photo: Carolyn Kaster/AP

Government delegates voted 129 to 16 for the measure, while non-governmental
delegates voted 621 to 37.

Though the vote is nonbinding – and
staunchly opposed by Chinese, Japanese, and South African representatives – it
may signal a change. Global conservation, it seems, is getting its sea legs.

For much of the 19th and 20th centuries,
conservation has been rooted on land. It was the Teddy Roosevelt legacy of
environmentalism, concerned chiefly with vast forests and big game animals. But
only recently did policymakers expand their concern to include the oceans, establishing
marine reserves and new protections for marine animals.

In August, President Obama expanded the
Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument to 582,578 square miles, nearly
quadrupling its original size. The reserve, which is located in the Northwestern
Hawaiian Islands, is now the largest ecological sanctuary on the planet.

"The designation of very large marine
protected areas [MPAs] is the only way we're going to meet some of our more
ambitious goals," Randall Kosaki, NOAA's deputy superintendent of
Papahānaumokuākea, tells The Christian Science Monitor in a phone interview.
"If we continue along making small, postage stamp-sized reserves, that's
not a bad thing. But it would take another 50 years to protect just 10 percent
of the oceans. With very large MPAs, we may hit the 10 percent target in
another 10 years."

A new feeling of urgency may inform the
shift in emphasis. In an IUCN report, scientists concluded that oceans have
taken up 93 percent of human-caused warming since the 1970s. Ocean acidification
is on the rise, new research says, and coral reefs are paying the price. And
waters are warming considerably, depleting oxygen in the process. Then there's
the impact of overfishing and offshore drilling.

"In the last 10 or 15 years, I think
we've had a great increase in understanding that the oceans are under threat
and that the biodiversity they hold really is critical to the survival of the
entire planet," Dr. Kosaki says.

Still, less than 5 percent of the world's
oceans are protected, despite covering more than 70 percent of the planet's
surface. By comparison, about 12 percent of all land areas are under some form
of conservation management. Oceans are taking the brunt of climate change, some
experts say, but we’re only just now seeing the effects.

"In 2000, President Clinton created
the precursor to [Papahānaumokuākea.] And that, I think, started the ball
rolling," Kosaki says. "It was a statement of societal values, that
we think it’s important enough to protect some of these large areas of ocean –
not for their economic or recreational value, but for their intrinsic value and
to protect biodiversity."

There are challenges to the MPA style of
ocean conservation. Many threatened ecosystems are located in the "high
seas," outside the jurisdiction of any single nation. Politics can also
muddle the issue, Kosaki says. But the worst may be behind us.

"Yes, there are technical, political,
and legal challenges ahead," he says. "But I think we've overcome the
biggest single hurdle, which is awareness of the oceans and awareness that
they're under threat."

Opponents to IUCN's Motion 53 have stressed
that conservation is a priority for them, too. But in countries that rely
economically on coastal resources, such as China and Japan, a no-touching
approach to the oceans is excessive. Sustainable extraction, they say, is the
way to go.

But that's just another side of the same
coin, Kosaki says.

"There's this notion that fishing and
conservation are polar opposites, but I don't buy into that division. The best
fisherman are actually good conservationists, because they realize that fishing
must be managed in a sustainable way or we'll be out of a job. About 3 percent
of the world's oceans are protected. As a fisherman, that means I can fish 97
percent of those oceans. I hardly see that as a threat to fishing."

And Kosaki would know – he has held a
commercial fishing license for 27 years. It was fishing, he says, that put him
through grad school.

"Whether you want to protect the
oceans for their intrinsic value, or you want to protect some areas so we can
keep sustainably fishing the rest, I think there’s something in this for both
fishermen and conservationists to buy into."